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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is "No Mortal Foe"?

2. What is the moral of the parable about the rabbi?

3. Of what does Michaela speak enthusiastically?

4. What does Jakob experience when he first wakes in Michaela's bed?

5. What does Ben study carefully that is a bit disorienting?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ben recall about his father and mother when Ben is growing up?

2. How does Ben's father escape a Nazi camp?

3. What does Michaela say about her parents and the pioneer museum?

4. Describe Ben's futile search for Jakob's journals.

5. What does Ben find in Jakob's study?

6. What theme does Ben incorporate into his thesis?

7. What are some facets to Naomi?

8. Who visits Ben before he is five and what is the result?

9. What does Jakob think about as far as the Nazis' effort to dehumanize the Jews?

10. Describe Jakob's visions of prisoners going to the gas chamber.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jakob emphasizes that he does not see the horrors that visit European Jewry during World War II while he is living in Greece. He endures hardships on Zakynthos and lives in constant fear of the door being bashed in, as had happened in his home in Poland. All of Zakynthos's Jews are saved from the Nazis through the courage of the Christian mayor and archbishop. By comparison, most of the Jews on nearby Corfu perish by drowning or in concentration camps.

1. Discuss what affect the constant fear with which Jakob lives would have on a young boy. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

2. Discuss reasons you think some people like the mayor and Bishop tried to help the Jewish people and others did not. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

3. Discuss, in depth, the concept of courage as it relates to the mayor and the archbishop. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Sometimes a book has more of a character-driven plot rather than action driven, and sometimes it is the other way around. Some books seem to balance the two. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven? Action driven?

2. How do you think a plot differs if it is character driven versus action driven?

3. Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why?

4. Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character development share equal time? Why or why not.

5. What type of plot do you think "Fugitive Pieces" is? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 3

There are a number of interesting questions raised by "Fugitive Pieces". Questions that Michaels most likely want readers to consider and think through carefully. Discuss the following:

1. What does the term "author agenda" mean?

2. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the Michaels' agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Michaels' probable agenda concerning that idea.

2. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

3. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

4. Research the life of Michaels and see if/where her life may have influenced her writing.

(see the answer keys)

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